SAUL, SHALLUM & JEPHUNEH CHAPTER SEVENTEEN - Page 2

THE FOLLOWING MORNING, Saul left early. He offered, on his way out of the door, to bring fresh flowers from the Rose Garden for his sister Miriam. She thought the offer out-of-character for her serious-minded brother.

After he had gone, she said to Esrom, "Strange Saul would suggest that. It is not like him." After thinking for a moment more, she said, "I am afraid, Esrom, that there is more on his mind than flowers. Would we be wrong to allow Joel to go to the Rose Garden and see if Saul has some meeting that he did not wish to divulge?"

"I don't think it would be wrong under the circumstances," said Esrom. "There is talk of plots against the life of Jesus. We should do anything we can to guide Saul back to the right path."

So they sent Joel after Saul. But at noon he had not returned, and Esrom and Miriam grew anxious.

"Why did we do such a thing?" Miriam lamented. "He is still just a boy, and if anything happened, I would just--" Unable to wait any longer, Esrom set out for the Rose Garden himself. It was situated near the city wall at the end of the main avenue leading from the Hippodrome and the Temple. As he neared the area, he saw that his passage was blocked by Roman soldiers. Behind the barricade of their shields, the avenue remained crowded with people who were being interrogated, one by one, by a group of Roman officers. On the pavement behind them lay the prone form of a Roman soldier, a pool of blood spilled across the pavement around his head and neck. He lay dead. Immediately Esrom guessed the rest of it; a zealot, one of the sicari assassins, had slit the throat of another soldier. It was a frequent event these days.

Two cohorts of soldiers had sealed off both ends of the avenue, seeking the assassin. Esrom could only wait. Joel was hopefully somewhere in that crowd, and would be released when the soldiers of Rome said they may leave. As he waited, he heard a Jerusalem dweller mutter, "If my brother was a zealot, I would turn him in to be crucified. After today we will feel nothing but increased hatred from Rome."

"They have him! They have him!" The sudden cries of Jewish citizens were heard from behind the barricade of soldiers. In order to avoid ruining their relationship to Rome, no doubt, many had offered to help locate the killer. Soon the soldiers dragged from the crowd an angry lad of about 16 years of age. His clothes were already torn, and his face bathed with blood from the beating the soldiers had given him.

For a moment Esrom felt fear. The boy had dark curly hair like Joel. But Joel was considerably shorter. Finally, the soldiers opened the street to resumed traffic. Soon he found Joel hurrying toward him.

"I saw Saul meeting with the men who visited the house last night, father. Is something wrong?"
Esrom said nothing as they turned to walk home.

"Why are you so quiet, Father? You seem much concerned about my Uncle Saul being with Shallum and Jephuneh."

"When we arrive home," Esrom said, "I will tell you. I believe you should know."

Once at home, Esrom sat down with his son. "It relates, my son, to the man Jesus. Every day the number of followers increase. The High Priest Annas and his son-in-law Caiaphas are becoming more outspoken in their statements that they must get rid of Jesus. They have hired a number of people to follow Jesus from place to place, even up to Galilee. They go with only one purpose, to gather anything Jesus may do or say that can be used against him. Shallum and Jephuneh's father made the comment in my hearing that Caiaphas has employed his sons. Now they are attempting to enlist Saul and it worries me greatly."

"He won't join them, will he, Father?"

"Well," Esrom answered, "he might."

"Why would he want to oppose Jesus?"

"Because he believes Jesus is deceiving the people when he says he is the Son of God and has come to do his Father's will."

"Is it wrong to say that?"

"It is if it isn't true. And most of our leaders think that it is not true."

"Father, what do you think?"

"Your mother and I, Joel, feel Saul and other leaders are wrong in making their judgment so soon. Nicodemus thinks as we do, that no man, if a deliberate deceiver, could perform the miracles of healing that Jesus is doing. Nicodemus is of the opinion, at least the last time we spoke, that Gamaliel believes as he does, thinking that God may be working through Jesus, and we should not oppose the work of God. Last week, Joel, the leaders expelled from the synagogue a man named Ephraim, who said Jesus restored his sight."

"Why, would they throw out a blind man for being healed?"

"There are two reasons for this, Joel. They said Jesus should not have healed on the Sabbath day, and they said because the man believed Jesus was the Christ. The Temple rulers are growing more strict every day, and they said anyone, no matter who it is, that suggests Jesus is the Christ, must be put out of the synagogue."

"Would they put you and mother out of the synagogue if you said you believed in Jesus?" Joel asked. "That could never happen, could it?"

For a moment Esrom did not answer. "Yes, it could."